South Korean delivery workers allowed rare pause in services to vote in snap election

SEOUL, June 2 (Reuters) - South Korean e-commerce and courier companies agreed to a rare halt of their delivery services on Tuesday to allow busy delivery workers time to cast their ballot in the country's snap presidential election after pressure from unions and activists.
Asia's fourth-largest economy has a highly tuned e-commerce sector and South Koreans typically rely on couriers to deliver everything from fresh food to clothing, often in a matter of hours, with the service normally available throughout the year.
South Korea's biggest e-commerce platform Coupang (CPNG.N), opens new tab, agreed to halt express deliveries for the first time since it launched in 2014, joining other local delivery services such as CJ Logistics (000120.KS), opens new tab and Hanjin Logistics.
"Rocket delivery will be paused during the day on June 3," New York-listed Coupang said in a notice on its platform, pausing deliveries between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Most of the tens of thousands of delivery workers in South Korea are considered gig workers or self-employed and do not enjoy the same legal protections as permanent employees.
The job is also notorious for long working hours and a heavy workload, with couriers complaining they have seen few of the benefits from an improvement in labour rights in other sectors.
The agreement to temporarily halt services during the polls, was positively received by some workers.
"I welcome the decision. But on the other hand, it is a little regrettable that night drivers cannot rest," said Cho Shin-hwan, a Coupang courier, who had to work on past elections.
Nearly 8 in 10 eligible voters in South Korea voted in the last presidential election in 2022, a far higher turnout than recent elections held in other democracies such as the United States and Japan.
Presidential election days are designated as a national holiday in South Korea to encourage workers to vote, with polls for the snap election staying open between 6 a.m. (Monday 2100 GMT) and 8 p.m. (1100 GMT) on Tuesday.
"Those affected worked hard to achieve this," said Kim Eun-jung, Deputy Secretary General at the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a non-governmental body, highlighting how delivery workers were excluded from current labour protection laws.
The June 3 presidential election was called after the Constitutional Court ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol earlier this year for his short-lived imposition of martial law on December 3.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Reuters

11 minutes ago

• Reuters

Toyota to raise US auto prices by more than $200 from July, Bloomberg News reports

June 20 (Reuters) - Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), opens new tab will raise prices of some vehicles it sells in the U.S. by more than $200 from July, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. Some Toyota- and Lexus-branded models will have their prices increased by an average of $270 and $208, respectively, the report said, citing Nobu Sunaga, a spokesman for the company. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Reuters

4 hours ago

• Reuters

Japan scraps US meeting after Washington demands more defense spending -FT

WASHINGTON, June 20 (Reuters) - Japan has canceled a regular high-level meeting with its key ally the United States after the Trump administration demanded it spend more on defense, the Financial Times reported on Friday. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had been expected to meet their Japanese counterparts in Washington on July 1 for annual 2+2 security talks. But Tokyo scrapped the meeting after the U.S. side asked Japan to boost defense spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP, higher than an earlier request of 3 per cent, the paper cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter, including two officials in Tokyo, as saying. A U.S. official who did not want to be identified confirmed Japan had "postponed" the talks but said the decision was made several weeks ago. The source did not cite a reason. A non-government source familiar with the issue said he had also heard Japan had pulled out of the meeting, but not the reason for it doing so. U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said she had no comment on the FT report when asked about it at regular briefing, and the Pentagon also had no immediate comment. Japan's embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. The Financial Times said the new higher spending demand was made in recent weeks by Elbridge Colby, the third-most senior Pentagon official, who has also recently upset another key U.S. ally in the Indo-Pacific by launching a review of a project to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. In March, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that other nations do not decide Japan's defense budget after Colby called in his nomination hearing to be under secretary of defense for policy for Tokyo to spend more to counter China. Japan and other U.S. allies have been engaged in difficult trade talks with the United States over U.S. President Donald Trump's worldwide tariff offensive. The FT said the decision to cancel the July 1 meeting was also related to Japan's July 20 Upper House elections, at which the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is expected to suffer a loss of seats. It comes ahead of a meeting of the U.S.-led NATO alliance in Europe next week, at which Trump is expected to press his demand that European allies boost their defense spending to 5 percent of GDP.

Daily Mail​

5 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

Major move by America's biggest retailer spells job doom after chilling CEO warning

Robots are whirring through a 2.8 million-square-foot Amazon facility. The company says the bots are here to help, not replace. Amazon recently began shipping orders from its new $300 million robotics fulfillment center in Charlton, Massachusetts, the company confirmed to The four-story facility houses cutting-edge tech, including hundreds of autonomous machines capable of lifting up to 1,500 pounds. They work alongside more than 1,000 full-time employees to get books, electronics, and toys into delivery trucks. Amazon staffers are 'working alongside robotics and other technology that assist our frontline employees as they deliver for our customers,' Amber Plunkett, a spokesperson for Amazon, told 'Ever since we introduced robotics to our facilities over a decade ago, we have added hundreds of thousands of people to Amazon's workforce.' They're working at the e-commerce giant's $300 million robotics fulfillment center in Charlton, Massachusetts, helping humans get packages ready for deliveries. It's the largest such facility in the state. Amazon expects it will generate around $65.5 million in local revenue. But the rollout comes amid a wave of job security anxiety because of AI — and even Amazon's top brass admits the shift won't be painless. '​​As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done,' the company's CEO, Andy Jassy, said in an internal memo to his corporate staff. 'It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce.' For their part, Amazon told that it is training a future workforce for new positions that will 'help design, build, maintain, and work alongside our technology.' The company didn't commit to maintaining current staffing levels. Jassy's memo comes as dozens of iconic tech companies make huge slashes because of generative tech. Microsoft is planning on cutting thousands of jobs to make deeper investments in its AI capacity. Amazon said the new Massachusetts center comes after a $300 million investment - it believes the high-tech facility will bring millions in regional revenue Amazon's CEO, Andy Jassy, wrote a note to corporate staff, warning that some of their jobs might be made redundant with AI Amazon said it has been retraining workers to prepare them for the advanced-tech future Intel, the flagging computer chip producer, said it will cut 15 to 20 percent of its workforce. Walmart, America's biggest private employer, slashed 1,500 jobs, including tech-related positions. Even consumer brands like Lululemon and Procter & Gamble will slash positions from its staff. AI-driven job cuts are frightening middle- and high-income workers that have largely been shielded by massive cuts. For years, those layoffs were concentrated in US manufacturing plants. The trend is freaking out college-educated employees.